Diversity and Inclusion Requirement
The diversity and Inclusion course requirement serves as a key curricular component of the University of the Pacific’s commitment to diversity and inclusive excellence. The diversity and inclusion requirement contributes to students’ intercultural competencies and to an understanding of the complex connections among domestic diversity, globalism, and democracy.
The University of the Pacific requires that all students who earn a bachelor’s degree must successfully complete at least 3 units of officially designated diversity and inclusion coursework. While this is usually met by one course, courses may be combined to reach the 3-unit total.
This requirement is applicable to all students who have enrolled at Pacific on or after fall 2010.
Post Baccalaureate Students
Students who completed a Bachelor’s degree elsewhere and who are seeking an additional Bachelor’s degree at Pacific are exempt from this requirement.
Transfer Courses
The University diversity requirement can be met entirely, or in part, by the successful completion of an approved course at Pacific or at an approved college and university. Students who wish to meet this requirement by taking a course at a different college or university must first complete a Transfer Course Approval Request form, available at the Office of the Registrar in Knoles Hall or online at http://web.pacific.edu/x7909.xml.
Students who wish to petition for a transfer course to meet the diversity requirement may contact the Director of General Education.
Objectives of the Diversity and Inclusion Course Requirement
Diversity and Inclusion courses will help students to articulate, in both written and oral forms, how notions of difference work within frameworks of social hierarchy. (Difference may be defined by such notions as age, class, citizenship, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, language, nationality, race, religion, sexual orientation, and/or socioeconomic status.) A course or series of courses in this category must fulfill all of the following:
- Help students articulate their own developing understanding of social difference and its impact on their discipline, personal life and society as a whole.
- Help students express, in both oral and written forms, their understanding of how ideas and beliefs about diversity and difference in the United States have changed over time, identifying relevant historical movements and players.
- Help students demonstrate a satisfactory understanding of how social institutions and individuals respond to issues of difference.
GE: Diversity & Inclusion Courses
ANTH 053. Cultural Anthropology. 3 Units.
This introductory course covers the anthropological view of humanity, the character and nature of culture, and the diversity of the human species. The major concepts, methods, and theoretical assumptions of the discipline are illustrated by applying anthropological perspectives to peoples from around the world. Topics include culture, ethnicity, and language; kinship, marriage, and social organization; time and space; religion, magic and rituals; gender and sexuality; power, inequality, and political relations; economic production, circulation, and consumption; social control; and the various forces and forms of change. General Education IC. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1C)
ANTH 172. Culture and Power. 4 Units.
What is power? How are power relations configured differently across cultures? How is power institutionalized and contested in an increasingly interconnected world? The theme that unites all these concerns is the politics of everyday life: how power works in and through culture to shape the lives of individuals and societies. Topics of discussion include: conflict and conflict resolution,; law and custom, leadership and authority, social and cultural control, ritual and symbolism, gender, ethnicity, and identity politics, nationalism and colonialism, representation, agency and political subjectivity, civil society organizations and social movements, borders, boundaries and citizenship. (DVSY)
BUSI 170. Human Resources Management. 4 Units.
This course introduces the P/HR management area with its core of activities that include job analysis, performance evaluation, employee acquisition, employee and management development, and compensation and benefits. The influences of the equal employment and civil rights laws, wage, and hour laws, labor law and labor unions in organizational operations are studied. Prerequisite, may be taken concurrently: BUSI 109 with a "C" or better. Junior standing. (DVSY)
COMM 133. Documentary Film as Persuasive Communication. 4 Units.
This course is a survey of documentary film beginning at the turn of the century and continuing through contemporary productions from a historical and rhetorical perspective. Students explore documentary film's origins and trace out its development in relation to its use and reception as students become familiar with the history of the documentary, the evolution of the genre, its rhetorical construction and its cultural influences. (DVSY, ETHC, FILM)
COMM 143. Intercultural Communication. 4 Units.
This course analyzes the major variables affecting communication between persons of different cultural backgrounds, explores essential intercultural communication theories that allow access to explanations and descriptions of cultural norms and values, and identifies guidelines for achieving intercultural communication competence. This course fulfills the diversity requirement. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1C)
ENGL 041. British Literature before 1800. 4 Units.
Spanning the 8th through the 18th centuries, this course takes us on a tour of “England” and the British Isles that makes stops in Pagan heaven, Christian Hell, earthly paradise, and the lascivious limbo of the Libertine. Along the way, we’ll read, among many other texts, Beowulf, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Astrophil and Stella, Dr. Faustus, The Ducess of Malfi, Paradise Lost, and A Modest Proposal, all of which epitomize the tensions between nation and narration, gender and genre, religious piety and raucous debauchery that invigorate the literature of this extraordinary period. In particular, we will be focusing on “outliers” – those who exist outside the perceptual schemes of the culture they inhabit – specifically, the Irish, Scots, Welsh and, above all, women. In addition to challenging you not only to interpret but enjoy a variety of literary modes, including epic and lyric poetry, chivalric romance, prose satire, revenge tragedy, allegory and much more, this course will encourage you to explore these texts as historical – and ongoing – bids for authority in a culture disposed to validate the Literature of the “center” over the “literature” of the margins. (DVSY, GE2A, GEND)
ENGL 126. Environment and Literature. 4 Units.
This course examines the intertwining of science, technology, nature, and culture as reflected in environmental literature. Its content and approach are interdisciplinary. The required reading include literary texts and writings from the natural and social sciences, which engage with the debates on the construction and destruction of "nature", sustainability, biodiversity, and bioengineering. The intersections of environmental imperialism, environmental justice, globalization and ecological crises are major components of the course inquiry. (DVSY, ENST, ETHC, GE3C, GEND)
ENGL 130. Digital Chaucer. 4 Units.
This course combines medieval literacy with digital literacy and the latest trends in digital humanities to examine issues of diversity (under every aspect) in Chaucer’s work. It investigates how Chaucer’s major works, The Canterbury Tales, The House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls and Troilus and Criseyde, can benefit from being reconfigured in a digital environment for greater comprehension of their historical and cultural frameworks, paying particular attention to power relations, class, gender and ethnicity. Students will conduct research on Chaucer using digital conceptualization, that is, the ability to see how the elements of an abstract whole fit together in a digital environment and to identify research problems that need to be addressed before others do. (DVSY, GE2A)
ENGL 131. Shakespeare. 4 Units.
Throughout his extraordinary dramatic career, Shakespeare wore many masks: lover, misogynist, royalist, traitor, poetic genius, racist and, most emphatically, double-agent. Nothing could be more evocative of the many faces of William Shakespeare than his unrelenting afterlives on screen. In this course, we will focus on the ways in which Shakespeare’s characters – specifically, bastards, moors, and whores – instantiate and disturb categories of “difference” that otherwise exist to shore up the boundaries of the “normal”. These profoundly non-normative characters, often deemed secondary or minor, are in many cases the unacknowledged engines of the plot, as well as envoys of the message (particularly in their contemporary cinematic incarnations) that the lechery and treachery afoot in Renaissance England is alive and well in the tribalism of our own times. (DVSY, FILM, GE2A, GEND)
ENGL 141. Topics in British Literature Pre-1800. 4 Units.
This course studies a single literary period designed to strengthen students' critical reading and writing skills as well as examine questions of literary themes, cultural and intellectual context, national identity, ethnicity, class, and/or gender. Student conduct directed research. Topics vary with titles such as The Age of Beowulf, The Medieval Mind, English Renaissance, Women Writers before Austen, and The Age of Unreason: 18th Century Literature. This course may be repeated once for credit with a different focus. (DVSY, GE2B, GEND)
ENGL 144. Medival Women Readers and Writers. 4 Units.
What did women write before 16th century? Who was the readership of their texts? How did male authors represent women in medieval literature? What did their books look like before the advent of print? This course explores the intellectual life of medieval women in relationship to their socio-cultural and historical contexts. We will look at women as readers and producers of literature and try to understand how these roles were reconcilable to women’s many other roles, such as mother, wife, businesswoman, etc. In addition, we will examine how women are represented in manuscript illuminations, and how images shape early readers’ interpretations and contribute to the process of making meaning. Readings are grouped according to the sociocultural context in which works about (and by) women were produced, though we will see that some texts resist such simplistic classifications. (DVSY, GE2B, GEND)
ENGL 145. Romances of Magic in the West. 4 Units.
From the seven Kingdoms of Westeros to the Romances of Magic in Western Europe, this course contemporary incarnations such as The Game of Thrones? Drawing on gender theory and cultural analyses of race, class, religion, and colonialism, we will study medieval romances spanning the eleventh to the fifteenth centuries and consider various types of romance – historical, national, popular, chivalric, family, and travel romances, among others – to show how cultural fantasy resourcefully responds to changing crises, pressures, and demands in society. By engaging with the geographies known to and imagined by medieval English romance, we will map nascent, 15th-century English nationalism against earlier discussions about the medieval origins of romance as the imaginative self-portrait of 12th-century aristocracy. (DVSY, GE2B, GEND)
ENGL 161. Topics in American Ethnic Literature. 4 Units.
Studies of contributors to American Literature within the context of their shared ethnicity are the focus of this course. Topics change and possible offerings include American Immigrant Literature, African-American Poetry, Black Women Writers, Blues, Jazz and Literature, and Chicano/a Literature. This course may be repeated once for credit with a different focus. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1B, GEND)
ENGL 162. Diasporic Asian American Literature. 4 Units.
Situated in the global systems of transnational capital and labor, engaging with the legacies of colonialism, narratives by Asian American writers are characteristically transnational, crossing multiple national borders. This course introduces students to representative works of major contemporary Asian American writers. We will examine the thematic concerns and narrative strategies in Asian American literature, by a diverse group of innovative writers of various ethnic backgrounds, including Cambodian, Chinese, Filipilo/a, Hmong, Indian, Japanese, Korean, Lao, Pakistani, and Vietnamese American authors. Our inquiries include the ways in which Asian American writers intervene in the dominant narrative of history as a mode of identity construction, re-imagine the past from transnational perspectives for a better understanding of the world we live in. Our analyses of the texts will draw from relevant critical theories, including those of Postcolonial Studies. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1C, GEND)
ENGL 164. WAR. 4 Units.
This course considers how writers and filmmakers struggle to describe the indescribable - war. What's at stake, ethically, personally, and politically, in how writers represent war? The course texts include novels, poems, memoirs, graphic novels, and theoretical readings. Discussions focus on the rhetorical and literary strategies adopted to offer specific perspectives on war and human nature and to open timeless questions for debate: How do wars affect the men and women who fight them, and how do wars affect those left behind? How can war provide the means to show our greatest strengths and capacity for self-sacrifice - to become heroes - yet also make us, somehow, less than human? (DVSY, GE2B)
ENGR 030. Engineering and Computing Ethics in Society. 3 Units.
Major engineering achievements are explored with an emphasis on ethical principles and the global impact these achievements have on society and the environment. Topics include societal needs, personal rights, whistle blowing, conflicts of interest, professional autonomy, risk assessment, sustainable development and the application of engineering codes of ethics. Contemporary technological controversies are examined along with future developments that require engineers to stay current in their field. Student participation is expected in classroom discussions, oral presentations, and written analyses. Prerequisite: Fundamental Writing Skills requirement. (DVSY, GE2B)
ETHN 011. Introduction to Ethnic Studies. 4 Units.
This course introduces students to the theories and practices of Ethnic Studies, with a focus on the racial formation in the United States, and its impact on the experiences and social statuses of racialized groups, including, but not limited to, Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians, /Pacific Islanders, and Whites. The primary course contents include histories, critical race theories, media representations and critical studies. While California serves as the major geographical location of racial formation in this study, the issues the class explores are situated in national and global contexts. Through a critical examination of histories and contemporary issues regarding the social positions of racialized groups in the U.S., the course seeks an understanding of “the irreducibility of race in U.S. political and cultural life” (Winant 33). (At the same time, the forces and conditions for social change and cultural transformation are examined. The contributions of historically marginalized “minority” Americans to the development of American democracy is a major discussion and research topic. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1B)
GEND 011. Introduction to Gender Studies. 4 Units.
This course explores the social construction of masculinities and femininities throughout history and in the contemporary world. Students learn about the differences between sex and gender, the relationship of gender to power, and the ways in which gender is inscribed in various cultural discourses and practices. A multi-disciplinary analysis is incorporated throughout the course. (DVSY, GE1A, GEND)
HIST 020. United States History I. 4 Units.
This is an introductory level course in U.S. history. It begins with Native American societies at the time of European contact and examines major social, political, and cultural issues in U.S. history through colonial settlement, the American Revolution, the early national period, the antebellum era, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. The course considers dominant cultural traditions and perspectives as well a minority cultures and dissent. (DVSY, GE1B)
HIST 021. United States History II. 4 Units.
This is an introductory level course in U.S. history that considers the major social, economic, and cultural forces in American society from the Civil War to the present. It examines dominant cultural traditions and perspectives as well as minority cultures and dissent. Topics include the closing of the frontier, progressive reform, industrialization and urban life, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, Civil Rights and social justice movements, the Vietnam War, and the Reagan years. Central themes are the U.S.'s increasing role in international affairs, political realignments, reform movements, race and racism, diversity, mass culture, and the historical legacies of the American past. (DVSY, GE1B)
HIST 050. World History I. 4 Units.
This course is a broad survey of ancient civilizations (i.e. Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, Indian, Chinese, Roman), social and economic structures and patterns of trade, cultural and religious traditions and intellectual contributions. The second half of the course covers the development of medieval and early modern civilizations to the 1500s. Particular emphasis is placed on the decline of the Roman Empire, the role and impact of Christianity and Islam, the European Expansion and global markets, and the European Scientific Revolution. (DVSY, GE2B)
HIST 112. History of the Holocaust. 4 Units.
The Holocaust remains a unique and ultimately incomprehensible event in human history. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this dilemma, it teaches us many profound ideas that we should never forget. This course examines the role of the perpetrators, the attitudes of the bystanders, and the reaction of the victims. The class looks at the emergence of Nazism, the life and career of Adolf Hitler and his helpers, and the implementation and execution of mass murder. How did other countries respond to the Holocaust? How did survivors live with the memory of the horrific events? How do we remember the Holocaust today? The course also analyzes the portrayal of the Holocaust in popular film and media today. (DVSY)
HIST 120. Native American History. 4 Units.
Taking an international interdisciplinary approach, this course examines the history of native peoples of different regions of North America from contact to the present. This course looks at how environmental change, disease, and biological vulnerability interacted with racial ideologies, economic, and social factors to facilitate European conquest. While this course is primarily concerned with the United States, considering the whole of North America enables students to see the similarities and differences between Indian experiences in a variety of regions. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1B)
HIST 123. Civil War Era. 4 Units.
This course begins with an analysis of events and factors leading up to the Civil War. It then examines in depth the war years covering the development of technology, leadership, military medicine, and the social experience of war for men and women, free and slave. The course concludes with a study of the immediate post-war years of Reconstruction across the nation. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1B, GEND)
HIST 132. American Immigration. 4 Units.
This course focuses on immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries exploring the experiences of the diverse immigrant communities in the United States. It also explores causes of immigration; experiences within the U.S.; effects of class, race and gender; and issues of identity. America's changing understandings of race and ethnicity over time are also central themes covered. Immigration and ethnicity are pressing social concerns in contemporary America. Congress debates "reform" bills while ordinary Americans protest current policy. While immigration policy issues impress us with their urgency, they are by no means new. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1C)
HIST 133. Women in United States History. 4 Units.
The course examines the history of women in the United States from the colonial era to the present. In addition to examining political reform, it offers insights into the day-to-day lives of diverse American women at various points in the female life cycle. The course is organized chronologically and thematically to promote the study of women in relation to major historical events and to explore women's roles in families, communities, the nation, and the world. It examines cultural models of American womanhood, including maternal, domestic, sexual, and social models, their development and recent changes. The course uses various primary and secondary sources to evaluate both current and historical arguments regarding the status, roles, and experiences of American women. (DVSY, GE1B, GEND)
HIST 135. Women in Time and Place. 4 Units.
In the early twenty-first century news reports have covered the first mainstream woman presidential candidate, the Supreme Court's upholding of the Congressional "partial birth" abortion ban, mothers protesting the war in Iraq and young women fighting there, and how women in the US still make only 77 cents for every dollar men make. This course uses historical analysis to understand several current "women's issues." such as reproductive rights, women's roles in wartime, political participation, sports and body image, and work. The course considers the perspectives and experiences of women from various social and cultural groups and sets US women's experience in an international context. (DVSY, GE2B, GEND)
INTL 151. Cross-Cultural Training I. 1 Unit.
This course prepares students for interacting in cultures other than their own. It is designed to assist students in developing learning and coping strategies when outside their native cultural environment, such as while studying abroad, as well as the communication and intercultural skills needed for interacting successfully in new cultural environments. Topics include cultural values and assumptions, intercultural communication, and cross cultural problems and adjustment. (DVSY)
MHIS 006. Music of the World's People. 3 Units.
Students examine folk, primitive, popular, and classical musical traditions of Asia, Africa, Europe and North and South America. Open to all students. (DVSY, GE1C)
MMGT 111. Music Industry Analysis. 4 Units.
Using reading, research, and discussion, students investigate the evolution of the American popular music industry during the last century. Social, cultural, business and technological changes are considered. The course emphasizes critical thinking, forming and defending opinions, and clearly presenting written and oral arguments that support student-developed theses which relate to a variety of eras and themes. Coursework includes a substantial research project on a topic of the student's own choosing. Prerequisite: MMGT 011 or permission of instructor. Junior standing. (DVSY)
POLS 104. Urban Government. 4 Units.
Students examine the structure and operation of urban units of government with emphasis on inter-governmental and inter-group relations in the United States. Problems of finance, racial, ethnic and class conflict, the adequacy of services and planning for future growth are included. The course emphasizes the role of race, class, and ethnicity in the city and is approved by Ethnic Studies. (DVSY, ETHC)
POLS 134. American Political Thought. 4 Units.
Principles and problems of political theory within the American setting are examined as they emerge from the founding period to the present. The course explores both the mainstream tradition and branches of counter traditions of political ideas in America. Emphasis is on the themes of authority, community, equality, liberty. (DVSY, ETHC, GE2B)
PSYC 017. Abnormal and Clinical Psychology. 4 Units.
This course covers the history of mental health and mental health diagnoses; past and current research findings, and prevailing thoughts and current controversies in the field of mental health and treatments. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1A)
PSYC 129. Advanced Lab in Developmental Psychology. 4 Units.
This advanced lab will focus on a more in-depth exploration of a specific topic area within the field of Developmental Psychology. The course will include a strong research/ applied component that will help students get a more hands on fells for research and/ or application of the concepts within the field. Possible topics include The Study of Infants, Psychology of Aging, Cognitive Aging, or other topics. Prerequisites: PSYC 029, PSYC 102 with a C- or better. (DVSY, ETHC)
RELI 035. Judaism. 4 Units.
This course is a basic introduction to Judaism that covers its history, beliefs and customs with an emphasis on understanding the Jews of today. (DVSY, GE2B)
SLPA 143. Culturally Responsive Practices. 3 Units.
Students examine theoretical models of normal second language acquisition and bilingualism that emphasize the relationship to accurate identification of communication disorders. The content distinguishes between language differences due to differing cultural linguistic variables and underlying, cross-lingual language impairment. Current research and trends in diagnosis and re-mediation techniques for multicultural clients is studied as well as problem-solving approaches for specific clinical cases. Open to non-majors and SLP minors with instructor permission. Prerequisites: SLPA 051, SLPA 101, SLPA 121, SLPA 125, SLPA 127, SLPA 129, & SLPA 131. (DVSY, ETHC)
SOCI 041. Social Problems. 4 Units.
This course is an exploration of the process by which various social conditions become labeled as social problems worthy of policy responses. It examines the various roles played by the media, government actors, activists and everyday citizens in this process, and pays particular attention to the role of power in enabling some social groups to label the behaviors of others an problematic while deflecting attention from their own practices. This course focuses predominantly on the US, but also engages in comparative analysis with other countries. (DVSY, ETHC, GE1B, GEND)
SOCI 051. Introduction to Sociology. 4 Units.
This course is an introduction to the field of sociology, a discipline that studies how larger social and cultural forces shape the human experience. The course introduces students to the sociological imagination or mindset, the various forms of social inequality, and the major social institutions. Many of the discipline’s major concepts, social theories and research methods are highlighted throughout the course, which focuses primarily on U.S. society. (DVSY, GE1B)
SOCI 108. Food, Culture and Society. 4 Units.
Are you what you eat, or do you eat what you are? This course focuses on the role of food in society, with an emphasis on understanding food in its social and cultural contexts. Topics include food and nutrition; problems of over- and under-eating; food fads; food sacrifices and taboos; food and social and ethnic identity; and the global politics of food. Although beginning with a look at American food ways, the course is highly cross-cultural and comparative in nature. (DVSY, ENST, ETHC)
SOCI 123. Sex and Gender. 4 Units.
This course introduces students to the sociological study of sex and gender. Sociologists define gender as a social category that is organized around perceived biological differences between men and women. As such, the study of gender is not simply the study of women. It is the study of how gender categories, identities, and institutions structure our lives and society. The course critically analyzes the sex and gender categories that organize social life and investigates how gender identities are constructed in everyday social life. Particular attention is paid to how social institutions reinforce gender identities and reproduce gender inequalities over time, as well as how sex and gender are intricately linked to other social statuses such as race, class, and sexuality. (DVSY, ETHC, GEND)
SOCI 141. Race and Ethnicity. 4 Units.
Historical and contemporary forms of prejudice and racism are the focus of this course. Social institutions such as the media, education, family and government are examined for their role in fostering and challenging prejudice and racism. Course readings address how race intersects with other forms of inequality (e.g., gender, class, etc.) Although centered in Sociology, the course materials are interdisciplinary in nature. (DVSY, ETHC)
SOCI 172. Diversity, Equity and Inequality. 4 Units.
This course examines the historical causes, current structure, and various consequences of structural inequalities in the United States. It focuses on various social inequalities, including those based on class, race, gender, sexuality, disability, nationality, and immigrant status. Sociological perspectives and research are applied to better understand how social differences (diversity) become a basis for unequal access to economic, political and social power (inequality), as well as how a more equitable social system might be achieved. Prerequisites: SOCI 051, SOCI 071, and SOCI 079. (DVSY, ETHC, GEND)
SPAN 114. Latin American Women's Film. 4 Units.
This course will introduce students to Latin American women film directors and their representations of Latin American culture and society. Students will view and critically analyze films directed by women directors from several Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru. The topics that will be covered in the course include gender representation in film, representation of the female body, race and ethnicity as portrayed in film, and the unique technical aspects of Latin American film. In this course, students will also compare gender, race, ethnicity, and socio-economic class within the Latin American and U.S. film contexts. All films will be in Spanish or Portuguese with English subtitles except for films originally in English. Lectures will be in English. Spanish majors and minors will complete all written and oral work as well as group discussions in Spanish while other majors will complete work in English. Please see catalog for further reference. (DVSY, FILM, GE2C, GEND)
SPAN 124. Escritores hispanos en los Estados Unidos. 4 Units.
This course is a systematic survey of U.S. Latino literature. This course provides an overall view of Hispanic literature in the United States with emphasis on the literature of one or more of its major groups: Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, or "Nuyoricans." This course may be repeated with permission of the instructor. Recommended: SPAN 101 or SPAN 103 with a "C-" or better. (DVSY, ETHC)